ISLAMABAD: Presiding over a meeting on housing, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that over 70,000 housing projects worth Rs1.4 trillion had been approved, which would have an overall impact of Rs7.3 trillion on the construction industry and 1.2 million jobs would be created.
He said it was the PTI government’s huge achievement that out of total 80,000 applications for low-cost housing projects, 35,420 amounting to Rs130 billion had been approved. A total of Rs46bn has been disbursed to 13,407 applicants so far.
“Applications worth Rs7 billion are being received weekly out of which Rs4bn is approved and Rs2bn is being disbursed every week which shows that the devised system is working efficiently,” he added.
The prime minister noted that a 148 per cent increase in housing finance over the last three years and expected approval of Rs517bn till December this year reflected the steps taken by the government to facilitate low-cost housing and construction industry.
A break-up of the government-financed low-cost housing projects was also given during the meeting. According to it, 4,000 units are being constructed in Farash Town, Islamabad, 4000 units in LDA City, 1320 units in Jalozai, 245 units in Raiwind, 324 units in Sargodha and Chiniot and 1800 units in the Angoori Road area of Islamabad.
The meeting was informed that 2,507 projects worth Rs627bn had been registered on FBR Portal under Fixed Tax Regime, which had an impact of Rs3.135tr on the economy.
Presiding over another meeting, PM Khan said incentivising rapid industrialisation through massive investment in special economic zones (SEZs) was the government’s top priority. “Government is focused on attracting maximum foreign direct investment in the country,” he added.
The prime minister was apprised that 112 out of 167 reforms identified by the Board of Investment had been implemented to ensure ease of doing business for all potential investors in SEZs. The remaining 55 reforms will also clear necessary regulatory approvals within a month.
The prime minister directed all the regulatory authorities, including the State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, to streamline their respective regulatory frameworks to enable the investors to get their issues resolved under one roof in the shortest possible time.
PM Khan also directed them to facilitate the growth of small and medium enterprises (SME) sector which contributes around 25pc to the country’s total exports.
He directed the authorities concerned to immediately resolve all pending issues of the SME sector related to export refinancing facility, payment of duty drawback on local taxes and levies, and financing from banks to address their liquidity crunch.
He asked them to notify five-year export policies for all major sectors, especially textile and SME, in order to lend certainty to the exporters.